Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

'Credible allegation' of child sex abuse against Fr Herman A. Porter, late Black Catholic activist

The Rockford Diocese priest organized the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus in 1968 and was floated as a candidate for Archbishop of Washington. Fr Herman A. Porter, center, with members of the Bishop Muldoon Council of the Knights of Columbus at a ceremony honoring him in May 1964. (The Observer, Diocese of Rockford) Black Catholic Messenger July 11, 2025 By Nate Tinner-Williams The late Fr Herman A. Porter, an African-American Catholic priest who served in the Midwest and in 1968 organized the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, has been added to the Diocese of Rockford’s list of clergy credibly accused of child sex abuse. The diocese released the updated list earlier this year, as noted in a February bulletin from one of Porter’s former parishes, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Sterling, Illinois. “Per diocesan policy, parishioners at parishes where Father Porter served, even though briefly, were notified and his name has now been added to the Diocese of Rockford's list of priests against whom an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor has been substantiated,” the bulletin stated. Born in the mid-1910s in Greenville, Mississippi, Porter was raised there at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, an African-American parish operated by the Society of the Divine Word. He later attended Loyola University Chicago and felt a call to the priesthood, becoming the first African-American member of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (the Dehonians) in 1942. He was then known as Herman A. Martin Porter. After obtaining a master's in English from the University of Notre Dame, Porter was ordained in Milwaukee in 1947, celebrating first Masses at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Chicago and at Sacred Heart in Mississippi. He later taught at his order’s minor seminary, Divine Heart in Donaldson, Indiana, while serving at parishes in what was then the Diocese of Fort Wayne. Porter authored a 1952 article, “Color Line in Catholic Churches,” which circulated widely in the Catholic press. It advocated for desegregating the U.S. priesthood and religious life, which were still largely closed to African Americans.